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Show I' G-OMPERS AND ALLEN IN DEBATE. ' i On Friday night in Carnegie hall, Samuel Gompers, president of the Federation df Labor, and Governor Allen of Kansas, debated ' the relations of capital and labor, and the right to strike and its, V legitimacv as regards the effect on the public. I The audience was made up of the partisan supporters of the i I two sides and, as a result, the cheers and boos were governed by i 1 the prejudices of the auditors. AVhenthe speakers concluded their argument, they stood lrre-soncilable lrre-soncilable and as far apart as when they began and that today is. j the attitude of the two forcescapital and labor. But everywhere throughout this country there is a hope ex-; ! j pressed that the conflict may be settled in some other manner than by the rule of might. 1 One of the elements making for a bad condition is the distrust! which exists. Labor union leaders view the big interests with sus- picion, declaring that at no time have the men of great wealth lived up to the awards of arbitration. On the other hand the capitalists , ! assert the unions do not abide by their agreements. ! , The union men refuse to place their destiny wholly in the keep- ing of those who assume to legislate for the people, as they distrust 1 , the men who make politics a .business and through politics become I ' the dictators of public policy. But what solution is there, if the f t people as a whole do not make the decision as to where the rights of labor leave off and those of capital begin? Inasmuch as nearly all the progress in the condition of labor in this country has" been brought about by labor unions, it is evident that to destroy unionism would be a national calamity, unless there be substituted for that power something equally beneficial to labor. V7hat is that substitute? So far there has been no satisfying answer to that ques'tsion. |